


The Stars in Your Eyes

by anavoli



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Basically I love Allura and had to write about her, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-17 03:05:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8127976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anavoli/pseuds/anavoli
Summary: Allura wakes up to find her home gone, Father dead, and 5 strange humans looking at her for guidance. 
Forming this ragtag bunch of paladins is no easy task. They certainly aren’t the best the universe has to offer, but they may be exactly what it needs.





	

_ “Father!” _

It feels like just a brief moment, when the darkness consumes her and suddenly disappears. Allura opens her eyes expecting to see her father, fear still clinging to her bones as she remembers what is happening. What is  _ supposed _ to be happening. 

But instead of her father, or even Zarkon, Allura finds herself in the arms of a lanky teenage boy. He has strange ears, a sly grin on his face, and worst of all, there are others with him.

Everything about this situation is wrong, wrong,  _ wrong _ . 

Allura wakes up to a world where her home has been destroyed and the only remnant she has of her father is an image she can only see, but not touch. She can speak to him, but his eyes do not sparkle as they did when he was alive.

She learns to move on. With Coran’s help, she devises a plan to continue her father’s work. Voltron must be found, and these five humans from Earth must pilot them.

“Are you sure about this?” Coran quirks an eyebrow. “They aren’t exactly the best and brightest the universe has to offer.”

Allura sighs and steels herself for the task ahead. “No, but they’re all we’ve got.”

Finding the lions is the easy part. The blue lion has already chosen Lance, and the others are easily able to control the creatures. Perhaps fate brought them together after all. The Alteans are pleasantly surprised and relieved when the paladins formed Voltron. All hope is not lost. 

Then the problems begin. Pidge keeps his head closed up too tightly. Keith and Lance bicker at every waking moment. Hunk can’t synchronize himself with the rest of the team. Shiro harbors demons of his own that even Allura dares not touch, and yet he tries to push it all aside, as if being a leader means putting on a front of strength.

None of them understand what it means to be a paladin of Voltron. 

Allura supposes it isn’t their fault. They didn’t ask to be thrown into the galaxy, far, far away from everything they know. It isn’t easy to take on the responsibility of saving the universe.

So when Pidge decides he wants to leave, Allura understands. Before Voltron, everyone had their own lives, their own goals. But she can’t help but feel a little resentment towards the green paladin, because even if she wanted to go back to her life, there is no Altea to return to. 

And yet, fate deals another card. Allura is horrified when she awakes from her trance, staring back at the faces of her scared paladins illuminated by the fiery surface of what used to be her home. How could she have let this happen? How could she have allowed herself to fall so deeply into her mind that she nearly uprooted all they had worked for?

She almost freezes. But she sees the helpless, terrified expressions the paladins - her paladins - wear and her body moves almost on its own. She doesn’t think, she simply  _ does _ .

Inside the chamber, her own desires continue to taunt her. Why is she here, apart from her father and all she knew, forging this ragtag band of humans into heroes when she has already suffered so much? 

Loss. All she feels is loss. 

She misses the flowers. The view from the spaceship is magnificent but nothing can compare to the starlit sky she saw every night from her bedroom window. She misses the knowledge, days spent pouring over tomes of Altean history and galaxy diplomacy. And how could she forget the  _ food? _

Her father’s eyes soften just so, a nearly-perfect recreation of the kind, brave king whose shoes Allura must now fill. Alfor is not here. She will never feel his warm embrace or walk arm in arm with him through the castle hallways. Now, holding onto old memories is only a disservice.

So she says goodbye. And Allura learns to move on.

After that, Allura watches her paladins grow and improve. She is afraid of their judgement at first, for the disappointment in their eyes after she lost control, but instead, she finds that they trust her even more. Their relationships with one another strengthen as well. Shiro’s time in the training room is not spent alone. The paladins meet together outside of training; Lance and Hunk take turns telling stories and Keith even cracks a smile. Pidge finally reveals his - her secret. 

Zarkon’s forces continue to draw near. The paladins grow anxious, as do their lions, sensing the growing threat. Allura does her best to focus on the task at hand but realizes that keeping a semblance of calm is more difficult than one might expect. 

The days are filled with drills and bonding exercises, strategizing and planning. Pidge makes endless modifications. Allura loses more sleep than she cares to admit, though at times she passes Shiro in the hallways, late at night, and they simply nod at the other in understanding.

They win some battles. They lose others. However...whether the paladins of Voltron are ready or not, the day arrives when they must make a direct strike on Zarkon’s empire, right in the heart of a secret Galran hub. 

The mission should be easy. The plan is simple enough, and although they do experience some bumps along the way, Allura simply adapts - quite literally.

But although they planned to be in and out within two twitches of Coran’s moustache, luck is not on their side. They almost make it out. Almost.

It soon becomes clear that one member may have to be left behind. When it comes time to make a decision, the choice is simple enough: Shiro has the information. He can try and argue, but Shiro  _ will _ escape. 

Time slows down. In that moment, Allura sees Shiro slowly drift away, through the bodies of Galran soldiers who come to capture her, take her away. Terror grips her heart; she doesn’t want to leave, cannot face Zarkon alone. Seeing him will only remind her of all the wrong that occurred on Altea. 

But she sees the  _ true _ black paladin, and remembers that there is hope. 

Allura believes in Voltron. More than any other force in the entire galaxy. No, they certainly aren’t the best the universe has to offer, but they’re exactly what it needs. 

She is their leader, their teacher, the one who brought them together. But she knows...her work is done. Even without her, they will be alright.

She loves her paladins. She watched them train, watched them struggle and bicker and hurt until they learned how to work together. She saw them crying from homesickness, bonding in order to comfort one another. In the beginning, these five humans were her only options for Voltron. Now, she can’t imagine anyone else sitting in their chairs.

So if she must sacrifice herself…

...she supposes that would be alright.


End file.
